Vacation

So we got back from a family vacation last Friday, and I haven't posted anything about it. Anywhere. In the modern world of instant gratification and constant status updating, I am apparently a complete and utter failure. There was no grand announcement of my vacation plans, and no steady stream of fabulous pics while we were away. Part of my reason for not posting is I do a lot of work in internet security, and there is nothing sillier than posting, "Can't wait to be gone on vacation!" (Translation: Come rob me soon!) followed up by, "We are having such a great time at this distant destination!" (Translation: Now! Rob me now!) Granted, we don't really have anything worth stealing. Our house is mostly filled with broken toys and stained children's clothing with the occasional outdated piece of electronics thrown in for fun. We do possibly have the world's largest collection of toddler-size Angry Birds underwear, but alas to would-be preschool looters, we took most of the collection with us.

But the other reason for not posting is the pressure. Yes, the pressure. Have you looked at what people say? This great! So glad to be away! The beach is wonderful! Fun! Fun! Fun! This is the most amazing thing EVER.

Our vacations, especially with children involved, can never live up to that. Personally, I think everyone writing things like that is lucky, insane, or has a very selective and limited memory. (Helloooo vacation Jello shots!) We've been fortunate enough to have a wonderful vacation with our children. My cousin got married in Orlando around Thanksgiving 2011, and we got to spend a week there. In addition to going to the wedding, we celebrated Leon and Michael's birthday and spent a couple of days at Disney World. Things went really well, but they weren't perfect. Natalia screamed in the car on the way down and the way back. (Not to mention, thanks to holiday weekend traffic, the return trip on I-95 took 13 hours instead of the usual 9. On the bright side, that allowed our kids to experience the fast food trifecta of having McDonald's for breakfast, Wendy's for lunch, and Burger King for dinner. That clearly has to be on someone's bucket list.) Then there was Michael. Poor little guy got so stressed out he broke out in hives every morning, then they miraculously disappeared the day after the wedding and he was fine for the last day away. His suffering did lead to some (unintentionally) entertaining memories such as Michael (that's him on the left) walking around Disney World in Ree's sun hat to cover his skin since we were afraid the hives were an allergic  reaction to sunscreen.

And then there was last summer's vacation. It wasn't horrible, but I suppose I did have unnaturally high expectations after the Orlando adventure, and last summer's vacation was more, um, real life. Among other things, there was no air conditioning in our hotel the first night, no electricity in our friends' house the last two nights thanks to a freak derecho, and we got to come home and buy a new heat pump (air conditioner) for our house.

I would say this year's vacation fell somewhere in the middle. We went to Cincinnati to visit family, and we had a pretty good time. The kids had fun, and we all survived. So maybe those of us with kids can just start sharing that. Went on vacation, and we survived! For our family, at least, that pretty much sums it up.

(And don't worry, vacation photos will be shared at some point. There were actually many enjoyable times, and we even have some pics to prove it.)